The Fosbury Flop

Fosbury & Sons is named after Dick Fosbury, the American high jumper who won gold at the 1968 Olympics by going over the bar backwards. Everyone thought he was doing it wrong. He was doing it first.

For their new year commission I translated that logic into an object. The only chess piece that can jump is the knight, and it moves by thinking around corners rather than straight ahead. I placed it on flexible aluminum so it rises above its own base, literally clearing the bar.

The wood is oak from a tree that grew on the Prinsengracht.

Oak, aluminum, brass, chess piece.